{"timeline":{"defaultZoomLevel":"0","height":600,"asset":{},"date":[{"asset":{},"startDate":"-2020","endDate":"-2001","text":"

Dates in the BCE part of the timeline run backward, in a sense. The higher the number, the older the date. For example Egypt was founded in 3050BCE* which is further back in time (an older civilization) than Rome which was founded in 753 BCE*.<\/p>\n\n

*There are many historians that will debate these dates as the founding of these civilizations. This happens because there is very little written evidence to support dates so far back in time and historians use legend, myth, ancient literature, written accounts, archeological evidence and dating techniques or other clues to establish approximate dates for when things occured. Two historians with the exact same data may interpret it differently and come up with different dates for the same thing.<\/p>\n","headline":"21st Century BCE"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"-500","endDate":"-401","text":"","headline":"5th Century BCE"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"-400","endDate":"-301","text":"","headline":"4th Century BCE"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"-300","endDate":"-201","text":"","headline":"3rd Century BCE"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"-200","endDate":"-101","headline":"2nd Century BCE","text":""},{"asset":{},"startDate":"-100","endDate":"1","text":"","headline":"1st Century BCE"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"-1","endDate":"1","text":"

Year 0 - In the Western world, our calendar is set up as a Christian calendar even though not everyone is Christian. Jesus Christ's birth is used to divide BC from AD. Everything before the year Christ was born used to be represented as BC (Before Christ). The year Christ was born and everything after the year Christ was born used to be represented as AD, which is short for the latin words Anno Domini<\/em>, which in English means Year of Our Lord. <\/em>AD does not mean After Death. Even though we see a 0 in this timeline, in reality, the calendar skips over year 0. We go from 1BC to 1AD which makes it hard to keep track of numbers sometimes...<\/p>\n\n

Changing BC and AD<\/h2>\n\n
Because we are not all Christians, people began using the terms Before the Common Era rather than BC (Before Christ) and Common Era for AD (Anno Domini) as it is more inclusive. It is now used more frequently than BC and AD. BCE and CE represent the same things as BC and AD, they just use different letters\/words to say the same thing. For example 2020 AD is the same thing as 2020 CE and 1500 BC is the same as 1500 BCE. In this course we will use BCE and CE instead of BC and AD. <\/p>\n","headline":"Where is year 0?"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"1","endDate":"100","text":"
The \"century\" runs from year 1 to year 100, which is actually less than 100 years! This is why there was such a debate over whether we should usher in the new millenium (a millenium is 1000 years) at the end of 1999, on December 31st at midnight, or at the end of 2000 on December 31st at midnight. Since our calendar skips year 0, theoretically, the first millennium was from the year 1 to the end of the year 1000, and the second millennium was from 1001 to the end of 2000.<\/p>\n","headline":"This is called either the 1st Century CE or just the 1st Century"},{"asset":{},"text":"
Notice that the 2nd<\/em><\/strong> Century runs from the year 101 CE to 200 CE. The 1st century encompassed year 1 CE to 100 CE. This is why we're in the 21st century but the year is 2020.<\/p>\n","startDate":"101","endDate":"200","headline":"2nd Century CE or 2nd Century"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"201","endDate":"300","text":"","headline":"3rd Century CE or 3rd Century"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"301","endDate":"400","text":"","headline":"4th Century CE or 4th Century"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"401","endDate":"500","text":"","headline":"5th Century CE or 5th Century"},{"asset":{"thumbnail":{"path":"images\/thumbnail-5ebd6d1a1fea6.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","copyright":{"license":"U","title":"Dionysius Exiguus"},"width":609,"height":619},"credit":"https:\/\/alchetron.com\/Dionysius-Exiguus","caption":"Dionysius Exiguus"},"startDate":"525","endDate":"525","headline":"Dionysius Exiguus","text":"
Dionysius Exiguus was a monk who lived in the 6th century CE. He invented our Western calendar timeline (not the yearly calendar itself, just the timeline) with the division between BC and AD starting at his estimation of the year Jesus Christ was born. It is unclear how he came up with year Jesus Christ was born, but it has become year 1 in our Western Civilization calendar timeline. Use of the abreviation \"AD\" didn't come into use until around 730 CE (AD) and Dionysisus Exiguus never actually used the abreviation \"AD\" in his writings, he just wrote \"since the incarnation of our lord, Jesus Christ\". The abbreviation \"BC\" didn't come into common usage till about 1000 CE (AD).<\/p>\n"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"1801","endDate":"1900","text":"","headline":"19th Century CE or 19th Century"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"1901","endDate":"2000","text":"","headline":"20th Century CE or 20th Century"},{"asset":{},"startDate":"2020","endDate":"2020","text":"
We are in the year 2020 but we are in the 21st century.<\/p>\n","headline":"Today's date. 21st Century CE"}],"language":"en","headline":"How to Understand Time - BCE to CE","text":"
This timeline and accompanying video will help you understand how the BCE to CE timeline is used commonly and in this course.<\/div>\n"}}

BCE-CE timeline

Andrea Wenckebach